This invention relates to a precision method and apparatus of dispensing fragrances and especially to a method and apparatus for filling large spaces with fragrances as well as dispensing fragrances suitable for use with outdoor Christmas trees, food fragrances to attract customers, or to mask unpleasant odors.
Some fragrance dispensing applications call for filling large spaces with fragrance and changing infrequently. One example is theme park ride systems that move guests through small themed rooms that require a different constant fragrance in each room to enhance the show. Other examples include evergreen fragrance for outdoor artificial Christmas trees, food fragrances to attract passing customers to a restaurant, or pleasant fragrances to mask unpleasant odors at a nursing home. One problem with filling large spaces is the difficulty in controlling concentration. A simple way to regulate fragrance concentration in the constant high volume air flow is needed to broadly disperse the generated fragrance. The present invention achieves this capability with a modified fragrance dispenser.
Precision fragrance dispensing is made directly to an individual and is coordinated with the viewing of a motion picture or television or to the viewing of an image in virtual reality or in computer games so that the viewer can realistically experience the full effect or illusion of being a part of or physically responding to the environment depicted by the viewed image and the accompanying audio. Existing theater systems and television and computer games and virtual reality generally are provided with a visual image along with the audio used in connection with the visual image. Past attempts, however, at incorporating the addition of smell to the overall viewing environment have not generally been successful and have not been widely accepted. One of the reasons for the lack of acceptance is the difficulty of providing smell to an individual user with any precision without providing the dispensed spell to a large area and to the problem of dissipating one smell and feeding a second smell as the scenes being viewed change. The smell sensation loses its effect and does not tend to provide the more accurate smells that attend any particular scene being viewed.
One prior art patent which attempts to provide a combination of a viewing chair and sense stimulating means for use in motion picture television theaters is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 3,628,829 to Hellig and includes a seat with arm rests having a back which terminates into a hood over the chair. The chair includes means for rocking the chair in various directions as well as means for vibrating the chair and an odor producing system associated with the chair which includes odor conducting conduits and means for moving air through the odor producing conduits towards the face of the spectator seated in the chair. The chair includes air passageways and exit ports for directing a fragrance towards various portions of the spectator's body and a system for feeding the fragrance to the air passageways and exhausting the odors around a chair for removing the odors. The Hellig system also includes a loudspeaker associated with the hood of a chair. This odor producing system attempts to direct the odors and the flow of fragrances to the area around the user's head and nose and then exhausts it from the area around the user's head and maintains the odors by partially enclosing the head. This, however, has had limited success because of the inability to precisely govern the dispensing of the various smells at precise moments and due to the delay in removing the generated odor in the area of the user's head.
The present invention is directed towards an apparatus for the precision dispensing of fragrance to a large volume area with precision control of the fragrance dispensed. A method and apparatus also provide for precision fragrance dispensing in small amounts to an area remotely controlled with pressurized gas signals.